David's Recital and more of Asher at 6 months

This month has been quite the doozy.  The month started off busy with rehearsal for the Idaho Falls Symphony.  Our "Red Dress" concert (red to represent heart health awareness) was so much fun with the mariachi band come as our guest artists!  They were such a fun group of people and the music was so different from what we normally play and very entertaining. 

Also at the beginning of this month, I found out that my sister is about half way along with her pregnancy!  I was apparently the last one to find out, but David and I are both very happy for her.  She has one little boy already and he really needs a play-mate so it will be an exciting adventure for her.  She finds out in about 2 weeks if it's a boy or a girl.  It will probably be a boy because apparently us Mitchell's can't grow girls!

One really exciting thing that happened was David's senior recital!  People are always confused about David's school status and ask why he did his senior recital now even though he graduated.  What happened was he decided too late he wanted to do music education and the school wouldn't let him stay around to finish up that degree because he had too many credits.  So he had to graduate and now he's a non-tradition (or non-matriculating or non-degree seeking) student.  He's just working on his certification to teach in public schools.  He'll do his student teaching this fall.  Anyways, his recital was amazing!  He's been working on the music since last summer and even won the concerto competition at the college with one of his pieces!  I'm so proud of all the work he puts into his music.  He asked me once if I was ok with him being a musician (because he was worried I'd be put out by being poor the rest of our lives).  The first thing I said was that I graduated in art so I obviously had no plans to be rich!  The second was that I can see how much he loves music.  And I'd rather he do something he loves than be rich and have him hate going to work every day.  He told me that when he was in high school he would practice his cello for hours just because he loved it so much.  And his cello professor here at the college said that he was so impressed with how far David had come.  When David first came to the school, he just showed up wanting to be a music major.  He wasn't on scholarship and none of the professors knew who he was.  When he showed up to his first lesson, Brother Tueller (his cello professor) asked him if he had taken any lessons.  David said he'd had a few lessons from his stand partner in high school and I'm sure Brother Tueller was horrified to hear that!  But he said that David had so much raw talent that he just took off.  He even said that if David had had consistent training and lessons when he was younger he could've gotten into a very good music school.  He also said he still could, but he'd have to really buckle down and basically live in the practice rooms so I am not the biggest advocate of that route...He even made it to the final round of the concerto competition when he was a freshman!  We have a DVD of that around here somewhere, I'll have to see if I can find it and put it on here.  He looks so young!  Anyways, David's family made it up here to see him play and we loved having them!  Brittany, who is married to David's brother Brian, recorded most of it and you can watch it on her blog here:

http://brittanyfisher5.blogspot.com/2014/02/weekend-in-rexburg.html

Now on to Asher.  My babe is 6 months old!  It's gone by semi-fast, but the first 3 months felt like they lasted about 7 years.  I guess that happens when your baby cries any time he's awake...but he is such a joy now!  He is so happy and fun.  Here are a few things about my bubba (that's what David always calls him)

-He's 17.5 lbs (46th percentile) and 28.5 inches tall (96th percentile!)  The doctor called him "lanky"
-He loves to smile and laugh!  And he now has 2 teeth on the bottom that peek out every time he does.
-He rolls and scoots all over the place.  It surprised me how mobile he got so soon!
-He loves bath time.  He rolls around in the tub, drinks the water, and blows bubbles in the water whenever he can.
-And speaking of blowing bubbles, he loves to blow bubbles when I give him a drink out of a cup.  He likes drinking out of cups and gets really excited whenever I'm holding him and get a drink for myself so I have to share and give him a drink too.  It usually ends up with both of us getting very wet, but he loves it and can't get enough!
-He has very fat feet.  And he always rubs his feet together.  So socks don't stay on very well and I don't even try to squeeze shoes onto his feet!  My mom says all her babies had fat feet so we couldn't wear shoes either.
-His hair is coming in nice and thick - I love to rub it!
-Because he's so tall he has to wear at least 9 months clothes, but most of what he wears is 12 month.

He's so fun to be around (most of the time) and we have a lot of fun being his parents.  Here's a look at the last 6 months!

1 day old and already love him so much!

David loved being a Dad from the beginning.  They're buddies.

2 months old.  He still sleeps like this.

3 months old and starting to smile a lot!  That goofy grin makes me so happy!

4 months old.  My sister wanted me to give him a Mohawk.  It doesn't work for him because of his cowlick he has right in front.  Yay for missionary comb-over forever!

This is his motto.  He eats like crazy.

5 months old - we had to buy him this because we were having sub-zero temperatures for about a week!  David and the rest of my family call this his "blue nightmare" suit because it looks like the bunny suit from A Christmas Story.

6 months!  They love to play, especially on our bed.



My sister gave me a sucker.  I gave it to Asher.  He was concentrating so hard on eating it and had a hard time getting it into his mouth!  It didn't help that it kept getting stuck on his arm, chest, etc.  But he loved it!



Here's a comparison from my 6 month picture and Asher's.  I would put David's up here if I had it.
I sure do love my little boy!  He makes me so happy and I can't help but give him a million kisses and hugs every day.  I'll leave you with a video of my funny little guy.

My Baby is 6 Months Old!!!

My little boy is growing up!  He is now 6 months old and figuring life out so fast.  I sure do love him so much.  He makes me so happy!  Here are some things I want to remember about him:

-He rolls all over the place!  It's amazing how fast he went from first learning to roll to being able to get wherever he wants to go!  Well, almost wherever.  He can only roll one way so when he hits a wall he is usually stuck.  In fact, if he rolls in his sleep, he'll get stuck on his stomach when he runs into the side and will scream until we put him on his back again.  Here's a picture of when I was watching him at my mom's house.  I put him on the play mat.  Where's Waldo???

-He is a very happy boy.  He will usually smile and laugh if you talk to him.  Even when he's not feeling well (like when he's teething), he'll try to laugh and smile in between cries!  He really wants to be in a good mood!  I love his little smile.  He's such a cutie!

-He loves people.  And cuddling.  And getting attention.  He doesn't mind being held by other people, just as long as he's getting all three of those things!  I love being able to cuddle with him. 

-He has one tooth!  And more on the way!  I think that was the first real sign to me that he's growing into a real person and that he won't be a baby forever.  I think it feels weird for him because he's always sticking his tongue out feeling that little tooth.

-He loves to play with his Daddy.  Probably because Dad throws him around a little more and is a lot more goofy.  David can get him screaming and laughing so hard!  And it makes me laugh really hard watching them play.

Here are some pictures of the last little while.  It sure is fun being a Mom to my little Asher!

He's such a cutie pie!

 

David loves getting his picture taken!  He was giving Asher something to chew on.  Those dang teeth don't feel good!

Their favorite place to play is on our bed.

I just love that big belly laugh!

My Name is Asher Lev - Part 2

Here are a few more insights I gained from reading My Name is Asher Lev:

"We studied the meaning of the verse in Proverbs 'The candle of God is the soul of man.'  The souls of Jews are like the flame of a candle, the mashpia said.  The flame burns upward; it seeks to be parted from the wick in order to unite with its source above, in the universal element of fire.  Similarly, the soul of the Jew yearns to separate itself and depart from the body in order to unite with the Master of the Universe."  I liked this imagery because it showed to me how much our souls want to be with our Heavenly Father.  We have to get past the "natural man", but once we do that, we won't be held back by our bodies and we can better communicate and share our lives with Him.  I saw a poem recently about babies and part of the reason they cry is because they miss being with our Heavenly Father.  It made me tear up because I don't want my little boy to be sad.  I want him to be happy.  But it's partly up to me to make sure that he lives worthy of being able to return back to His presence.

"There are two ways of painting the world...One is the way of Greece and Africa, which sees the world as a geometric design.  The other is the way of Persia and India and China, which sees the world as a flower."  This isn't really a gospel insight, more of an art insight.  I've never thought about things like that before, but it is very true!

 "I remember that the first time I saw the Michelangelo Pieta...I was an observant Jew, yet that block of stone moved through me like a cry, like the call of seagulls over morning surf..."  The picture below is the Pieta that Chaim Potok is referring too.  It is also called The Deposition.  The figures are Jesus in the center being held my the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene with either Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea standing behind.  I hope that I can see works of art like this and have it affect me as much.  The grief and pain that is showed in Jesus' face affect Asher Lev so much that, even though he is Jewish, he uses the crucifix in his greatest paintings later on.

"An observant Jew working on a crucifixion because there was no aesthetic mold in his own religious tradition into which he could pour a painting of ultimate anguish and torment."  Jewish people do not use the cross to remember Christ.  In fact, they view Christ as a man with good intentions, but someone who brought many, many years of pain and suffering to the Jewish people.  In the book, Asher uses the cross to show the pain his mother felt when she had to stand between her husband and son.  The reason this touched me so much is because it helped me realize the pain and suffering Jesus went through.  So much so that in other cultures, they don't have a symbol that even comes close to showing the torment that our crucifixion does.  It makes the Atonement that much more special to me.  To realize that Christ went through so much because He loves us.  He wants us to be able to make up for our mistakes.


This is the painting the author of the book, Chaim Potok, made.  This is what he imagined "Brooklyn Crucifixion" to be.